Starting Whole30 tomorrow (25th June)

[magda]

Hi everyone

I'm here writing to you all the way from Poland I'm ready to finally do something about my crazy eating patterns, so I'm starting my Whole30 tomorrow and will keep myself accountable here.

I'm doing it mainly for psychological reasons. Losing a few pounds and toning up a bit will be a great bonus too but I'm not overweight and I exercise pretty regularly. However, my eating habits are out of control and this has to change. I lost some weight (~20 LBS) about 3 years ago following a conventional wisdom healthy diet (whole grains, low fat etc.) and sticking with low glycemic foods. I managed to keep the weight off for a while and looked and felt good. But then I started playing with veganism. I never bothered to look at macronutrients in my foods but I'm guessing the amount of protein I was consuming dropped significantly and the amount of carbs went up. I was constantly hungry, so I was eating HUGE amounts of everything, to the point when I felt like my stomach was about to burst Of course this caused the weight to creep back on...

Then I quit veganism and started experimenting with primal eating. However, I had a massive sweet tooth/ carb addiction, so I was "low carb when there's no cookie in sight". I realized things were really out of control when one day I ate the whole nut and honey based ("paleo") pie crust. I literally ate the whole thing with i don't even want to think how many grams of sugar in it... And I knew I shouldn't be eating it, but somehow I still did.

SInce then I've been trying to stick with primal eating and avoid cookies. No more pie crusts have been eaten, but I notice that I eat far too much nuts and dairy and since they are "allowed" on primal plan, I tend to go overboard... While I feel much better not eating grains and added sugar, I feel like I'm constantly cheating and talking myself into thinking that it's OK to eat buckets of greek yogurt with nut butters...

So here I am, ready to make a real change. I can do anything (well, almost, I guess) for 30 days. So my day one will be 25th June and I hope the whole 30 days will be a smashing success and at the end of day 30 I'll be able to tell all of you here that I'm a new person

[Derval]

Welcome and best of luck with your whole30. Hope you are enjoying the UEFA Euro 2012 excitement!

[magda]

Well, actually I'm not much of a football fan, but I do enjoy the fun atmosphere of people from all over Europe basically partying around the clock and having a blast

About the whole30... well - one day done, 29 to go I guess so far, so good

Breakfast: 2 hardboiled eggs mashed with cooked brocolli + some homemade pork roast, a diced tomato and spinach sauteed in ghee. ANd 1/2 cup cherries. I actually enjoyed it and I consider this alone to be a great success, because it was one of maybe 5 savory breakfasts I had eaten in several years. I was sure I need some sugar to be able to function. Well, I did function quite OK

On my way to the office I had a coffee with coconut milk (canned, I added 2-3 tbsp)

Lunch: soup of roasted bell peppers and zucchini with cocnut milk and roasted turkey + a handful of nuts

pre-workout: 2 small eggs mixed with a shredded carrot, 1/2 banana, cinamon, ginger etc. I microwaved it and it was actually quite good

post-workout: several bites of organic beef sausage + an apple. It was priceless to see the faces of people in the gym locker room seeing me unpacking the sausage (that I'd just bought before my workout) and biting into it Maybe I should think of some more portable post WO snacks

Dinner: salad of some agurula, a roasted beet, some homemade pork roast, 1/3 an apple, small handful of walnuts + olive oil and balsamic. Just finished, it was good

Some thoughts after day 1:

- I think I need to cut nuts down a bit...

- I def. need to eat my pre-workout snack closer to the workout. And maybe make it a bit smaller? Anyway, does a WOD that lasts 25 minutes (actually 24 something) even count as a workout that I need pre and post workout food for? That's a serious question in case you're wondering. I was tired (actually barely able to breathe ) after the WO, but still... I doesn't seem like so much effort that I need to replenish calories.

- I think it will be hard to go on 3 meals a day ONLY. I'm not planning to workout tomorrow (have some stuff to do around the house) and I expect to be starving... I know I should increase my 3 basic meals in tha case, but I can only eat so much food in one sitting... Well, we'll see

[kayell]

LOL "low carb when there's no cookie in sight"

I used to snack constantly. Eating a big, high protein breakfast has helped me go to a really rock solid three meals pattern. Breakfast at 6-7am will hold me comfortably until at least 1 pm. It doesn't have to be a huge heap of food, just a big chunk of protein, some fat and little carbs. I eat veg at breakfast and don't eat fruit until later in the day. IMO nuts are partly a psychological thing for many people. It's the crunch. Keeping them in the back of the freezer and only retrieving them for seasoning helps me.

Welcome. You'll do fine, you have the ability to do this.

[magda]

Thanks kayell, I followed your advice. I had a big and awesome breakfast - some cauliflower + sweet potato mashed with coconut milk and seasoned with salt and pepper and nutmeg (fantastic!) with about 5-6 oz of organic beef sausage and a small fried egg on top of it all. It was SO GOOD and kept me full from ~7AM do 1.30 PM! That's unheard of!

Feeling good, no carb-hangover so far, but I had to escape the kitchen area at my office when a coworker was eating pancakes